Who’ll Build ‘Dream House’? - Page 2

"It's all workable," promises the CEO of the Mesa, Arizona-based design company. DZahr said in-factory stress tests would prove that's true of its steel-and-concrete frame. "All we have to supply these factories is a CAD [computer-aided] design…That's one of the benefits of steel framing. It's the beauty of it."

Steel frames have always stood rigidly in the background of wood in MCM architecture, with some noted California architects, including Rafael Soriano and Pierre Koenig, designing several. Joe Eichler even built two, including the all-steel X-100, a demonstration 'house of the future' in the San Mateo Highlands.

DZahr said he works with two certified architects in Scottsdale and Australia, respectively, each with 25 years of experience. His own design background began with his father being a working architect who trained him in drafting, "But that was old school. I basically hated it and wasn't going down that road."

The $53 million estimate of the built property value assumes construction on a prime, ocean view bluff in Malibu or San Francisco, DZahr said, adding that "it could actually be higher" (in price). The company is also pursuing development of its designs in a few Mediterranean countries because steel costs would be lower there.

"The price of steel has gone up in the U.S. We're looking at maybe double the price," DZahr estimated.

The firm's other designs are more moderate, in the neighborhood of 6,000 total square feet—except for the 9,470-square-foot 'All Star NBA Dream House' with movie theater, tennis court, and "underground underwater pool, smoking room, and wine cellar."

Dzahr said all his company's designs include more baths than beds because "the bathroom is a private sector of your home, and you don't want to share that with any guest."

And so they are indeed magnificent homes that Next Generation chooses to design, DZahr declared, explaining, "It would hold us back if we just focus on small projects…Everybody wants to downsize, and I just don't understand that mentality."

Click here for a gallery of photos for the 'Magnificent Cantilever Home.' Click here for another video ride.